Shoveling Sand Against the Sea-Mammograms+Early Diagnosis DOES NOT= Prevention

[Guest guest]

Frank, sorry. There were some idiotic typos in the first version of

this message. I have deleted that first one. Here it is again:

 

This happened in Illinois today:

 

A few hours ago, while we were in church, my wife introduced me to an

old friend of hers who is a traveling radiology technician whose sole

job these days is traveling about administering mammograms.

 

I just happened to have in my jacket pocket the interview with Samuel

Epstein, Professor Emeritus of Public Health at Illinois University.

I had printed it and brought it with me because I have been trying to

bring my fellow church members up to speed about the hazards of

feeding themselves and their children pepperoni, hot dogs, white

bread, potato chips, cheese doodles, etc, etc.

 

After saying hello to my wife's friend, I took out the interview,

turned to the section in which Epstein talks about the very dangerous

amount of radiation accumulated by women who get regular mammograms,

and began to show it to her. Not 3 seconds passed before she pushed

the papers away and cut me off, saying, " Oh, don't believe everything

you read! " I attempted to remind her that this was not " everything, "

but a Professor Emeritus of Public Health at her own local Illinois

University, but she was stone deaf to anything I had to say.

 

I did score ONE point, however---At the same time she was pushing the

interview away, she was talking about the great value of breast

cancer prevention by diagnosing breast tumors while still small. I

said to her, " Prevention " ? " Early diagnosis " is NOT prevention.

PREVENTION is getting daily exercise. Prevention is drinking

plenty of water daily. Prevention is not eating bratwurst and

pepperoni! "

 

And I GOT her to THINK and to ADMIT, at least, that what she was

talking about is " early diagnosis, " NOT prevention, for pity's sakes!

 

Unforunately, such " early diagnosis " means that the cancers get

treated in an earlier stage which means more women may survive for 5

years subsequent to beginning treatment, which means the NCI, the

Drug Companies, the ACS et al can report that " due to mammography,

survival rates for women with breast cancer are getting better... "

 

And the ignorance and the lies go on........